The Grandfather Clock

Over 30 years ago, when I lived in Connecticut, I bought a grandfather clock.  This is it.

It isn't the most elaborate clock nor was it terribly expensive.  But it keeps the time and sounds good when it strikes every quarter hour.

The clock has been moved a lot since I got it.  First it was moved from West Hartford to Tulsa. Then it was moved 4 times in Tulsa.  The next move was from Tulsa to Dallas.  From Dallas, it was moved to Sarasota.  Six and half years later, the clock was moved back to Dallas.  We've moved twice since returning to Dallas.  We finally found an apartment that we want to stay in.

The clock stopped working the first time we moved within Dallas.  It would run for 20 minutes or so and then stop.  The clock was level as it needs to be to run properly.  And I couldn't see anything wrong with it.  So I would start it every few days just to see what would happen.  There was no reason to think that the clock would act differently, but I restarted it every few days.  Eventually, I gave up.  I should have called a  clock repairman but I never did get around to it.  Then when our lease was up after a year, we decided to move again.

I set the clock up in the new apartment, the one where we live now, leveled it, and started it.  It ran for a short while.  So I restarted it  And it ran a little while longer.  I kept restarting it from time to time over a period of several days.  It wasn't really rational to expect the clock to keep running simply from constant restarting.  But eventually it did.  And now, with the help of a little silicone spray, it runs until the weights need to be raised.

Some people find the clock chiming every 15 minutes a little annoying, especially at night.  I had to turn the chimes off when my brother visited us.   The clock was outside his bedroom door and kept him awake.

When my son, Zach, came to visit, I asked if he wanted me to turn the chimes off.  He said, "No, it just sounds like home.".  He had grown up hearing the clock chime the quarter hour.  So the chiming did not bother him.

My wife Linda was tired of moving after having moved twice in less than three years. She told me that I had better like where we're living now because we were going to be hear for at leas 6 years.  I told her that if the grandfather clock kept working in the new apartment, it meant that this is where we are supposed to stay.

I don't really believe in signs like that.  But when I hear my grandfather clock strike, especially when lying in bed in the middle of the night, I feel at home.  So I guess we will stay a while.

Wal-Mart Adds 2 and 2 Together and Almost Gets 4

Wal-Mart almost gets it.  This article:  http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/27/news/companies/walmart_ceo_consumers_under_pressure/index.htm reports that Wal-Mart is worried because their customers seem to be running out of money earlier in the month than they used.  Wal-Mart attributes that primarily to high gasoline prices.  I'm sure that higher gasoline prices as well as higher food prices have had an effect on what shoppers spend at Wal-Mart.

Later on the report says that Wal-Mart has had seven straight quarters of sales declines.  They attribute that to their prices not being low enough.  Perhaps their prices are not as competitive as they once were.  I think that some of their sales decline can be attributed to the economy.

But I wonder if some of the sales decline is not Wal-Mart's own doing.  As with most retailers, it's hard to find a product they sell that's made in the United States.  It seems to me that as more and more manufacturing jobs are lost in the United States  there will be fewer people in the United States able to buy the products made overseas and sold at Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart is shrinking its own market.

Equality

Nicholas Kristof's  column in the January 2, 2011 New York Times is based on book, “The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger.” The book is by two British epidemiologists who have studied the effects of inequality.  The column says that the stress of being at the bottom of the social hierarchy causes biological changes that result in physical ailments such as heart disease and social ailments including violent crime.

You can, and I hope you will, read the entire column here: Equality, a True Soul Food

The column got me thinking about my childhood.  Very few people in the little town where I grew up locked the doors to their houses.  Burglaries were almost unknown.  Was it just because it was a small town? Or was there another reason the town was safer than? 

The top tax rate from 1951 through 1963 was at least 91%.  In 1952 and 1953 it was a bit higher, 92%.   The estate taxes were high too, 77% at the highest bracket.  While there were still some very rich people, the effect of the tax rates was to reduce the difference between the highest incomes and the lowest incomes and to reduce the possibility of an aristocracy of wealth in the United States.

So did the greater equality of income make the town I grew up in safer?  Possibly.

Thought I'd Start a Blog

My wife, Linda, has no interest in political or religious discussions.   And Facebook really isn't a proper forum for all the things that are on my mind.  So I've decided to record my musings in a blog.  I doubt what I have to say will interest many people.  But I'll at least have  a way to express what I'm thinking.



More to come.